Phoenix Comicon has a whole slew of programming for authors, and two of them were Writer’s Critique groups. It required signing up in advance, and the queue formed an hour before sign up would begin. Authors would have two minutes to read a short piece or excerpt from a larger work, then would get feedback from professional authors. The wonderful authors that volunteered for this were Sharon Skinner and Tom Leveen.

I was working with a first draft of a section of Tuatha dé Rising that focuses entirely on a performance delivered only through movement. My first concern was whether I had hit the right balance of describing movement so that the reader could see what was happening, without getting into such intricate detail that the pacing slogged. My second concern was that the scene was viewed from two different visual modes: One from the audience and one from a character seeing the world through the sight of the supernatural beings in Tuatha dé Rising. The second concern I wanted to address was whether the way I chose to present the visual differences created the effects I was hoping for. Trying to strip down the draft so that my two minute reading could present both of these concerns was a valuable exercise in itself.

My hubby and brother-in-law are playing Injustice: Gods Among Us. This is a new fighting video game that features the Superheroes from DC Comics. (Yes, this is the same brother-in-law that practices the magical art of Beavermancy). During one of the fights, Aquaman breaks one of the glass walls of Atlantis and allows the ocean to rush in at his foe.

B.I.L.: If Atlanteans can breathe water, why do they keep building underwater buildings that are dry?
Me: So they can read books!
Hubby: There’s lots of advantages to having dry areas, like paper and drinking out of cups.

Heee, I’d never even thought about the difficulty of drinking out of cups underwater. And maybe a little telling about me that my first thought was about books. I am told that they do make waterproof books for adults now, but there isn’t much of a selection.

Later, in a combat with Batman, B.I.L. paused the game after Batman took a hit that broke his leg.

B.I.L.: Did you see that? He just broke his leg! Now he’s going to while like a little baby and go into retirement for 8 years. Oh, I hurt my leg, I can’t possibly continue fighting for Gotham when I have an ouchie!

I won’t say that Dark Knight Rising made Batman a household joke. We still have a lot of respect for Batman, just lost some respect for Christopher Nolan’s vision of him. Batman may be a lot of things, but a quitter is not one of them, not with his psychological issues. Batman Beyond had it right, with an elderly Batman wearing a robotic suit to compensate for his loss of physical prowess, still unwilling to give up his fight against crime even when getting heart attacks on the job.

Any funny moments you’d like to share? Has anyone tested out these waterproof books?